The sun was still hidden behind the horizon as Discord hung lazily in the sky above Fluttershy's cottage. This was his favorite time of day. Overhead the celestial cogs whirled and clicked, humming a tune of perfection filled with harmony and order. It was something only gods noticed, though Discord wished he didn't have to notice. It was rather like an annoyingly loud clock that one could not muffle. It was beyond his control, which both aggravated and amused Discord. After all, he never wished for complete control over everything. That would defeat the point. Some order was good; it made the chaos more apparent.
The audible thrum of the celestial machinery overhead wasn't why this was his favorite time of day. The gears overhead shifted subtly as entities stirred beyond his ken, but Discord had been around long enough to know what it foreshadowed. Somewhere, Celestia awoke. Dawn was imminent.
Discord floated closer to Fluttershy's cottage, wriggling his way through the sky like an excited foal before Hearth's Warming Eve. He delicately perched atop the weathervane, balancing on one cleft hoof as he watched eagerly. This was the moment. This is what he lived for. The tranquility, so precarious. The atmosphere simply shivering with antici—
The first rays of the sun brightened the world around the cottage, lighting the tops of the trees. From below in the yard, a rooster saw his sworn enemy, the bright orb that daily threatened his station as the most beautiful part of the morning. Strutting to the top of the coop, he flared his wings, plumage red and green and golden as the light hit him just-so, and he cried defiance to the sun. "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
The animals of the cottage awoke, chattering cries filling the air, and all around the cottage, the beasts and birds came out of their slumber, shouting for attention, sustenance, love! Order shattered, the tranquility evaporated, and the atmosphere was resolved.
"—pation." Discord said, grinning at nobody in particular, and yet also everyone at once. With a delighted laugh, he hopped from his perch atop the weathervane and dove like a horrific, mutant swan to the ground below. His momentum abruptly halted mere inches from the ground, and he simply straightened up and walked through the front door and into Fluttershy's cottage.
"Oh Fluttershy, dear little pony! Time to start the day!" he called with manic glee, turning with a snap of his fingers and repairing the perfectly Discord-shaped hole he had made in Fluttershy's front door. Around him was madness, birds trilling and mice squeaking and assorted other family, genus, and species making their particular brand of racket. Discord stalked through the front room, tracking half-hoofprint, half-lizardprints across the rug and to the bottom of the stairs to Fluttershy's room. He stopped there, though, ducking beneath a few birdhouses. He didn't go upstairs. That was against the rules. He grimaced slightly, and impetuously put one hoof on the lowest step in a small act of defiance to the rules. He grinned wickedly at his semi-transgression and called again. "Fluttershy! Your constituents await!"
Satisfied that he had added the perfect amount of rush and strain to the morning, Discord stepped away and lounged across a nearby couch to wait.